by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

When last we spoke with Jerome Sable and Eli Batalion, AKA MCs VowelMovement and Bushman, the two local comedian/rapper/playwrights were working their rascally raunch-rap side project Grafenberg All-Stars while their main claim to fame, the successful stage play JOB: The Hip-Hop Musical, got ready to go global. Now they’ve got a full-on GAS album to launch (God, I love that acronym), JOB has been entirely revamped and is set for a six-week run in L.A. with five breakdancer/singers, a live DJ and award-winning stage director Stefan Novinski keeping their shit together, and they’ve still found time to educate us with another hilarious play, which graces the Montreal Fringe Festival for a week straight.

Mirror: This Hip-Hop 4 Dummeez show you guys are doing at the Fringe—what’s it all about, then, eh? Are smart people like me allowed to come down, or is it only for people who spell “for dummies” incorrectly?

Jerome Sable: It’s funny, we just came from our run in Toronto at the Tarragon Theatre, and apparently the box office got a call from someone wanting to enroll in the Tarragon’s “new hip hop classes.” But no, Hip-Hop 4 Dummeez is neither a real lecture, nor is it exclusive. It is a comedy show for dummeez and smarteez alike. Everyone is welcome, except for maybe Shawn Desman. Okay, fine. Desman can come. But there’ll be a surcharge.

M: Okay, perfesser, what’s the most important piece of knowledge you intend to impart about the noble Hip Hop Nation?

JS: What a lot of people might not be aware of, even those “in the know,” is that you have to adjust your hip hop based on your geographic location. For instance, here in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Jay-Z becomes Jay-Zed, 50 Cent becomes 62.4 Cent, and Chingy becomes—wait for it—Jean-Guy.

M: Tell us all a bit about your new album, G Marks the Spot. In trying to describe it, phrases like “wizards of sound and motion” spring to mind, but then so does “the Midwest’s leading distributor of women’s undergarments,” so I think that’s best left to you.

JS: We don’t think of the album as strictly a hip hop album. To be sure, there’s rapping on every track, but the musical genres that inspire the different songs range from the hip hop you might be used to, all the way to jazz, bossa nova, R&B, techno and rock. The project may not fit nicely into any pre-existing category, but hey, neither did Siegfried & Roy—and look where they’re at.

M: I’m particularly fond of “Feel That Hump” with its Middle Eastern vibe. Thing is, a friend of mine fell off a camel and busted her arm in Rajasthan, so I’m not sure advocating camel rides is a morally righteous thing to do.

JS: That’s right, and in fact, camel-riding is but one of the many controversial activities we endorse on the album—not to mention midget love and, perhaps worst of all, saying what’s on your mind. Actually, the first edition of the album was recalled in a mass “Ideas Recall” because the distributor discovered people were “getting the wrong ideas.” Now, the new edition has a parental-advisory symbol that says “straight-edged motherfuckers beware.”

Hip-Hop 4 Dummeez is at the MAI (3680 Jeanne-Mance) from Saturday, June 11 to Saturday, June 18, various times (check Fringe schedule), $9. Grafenberg All-Stars CD launch at le Swimming on Saturday, June 18, 8 p.m., $9

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